I have finished all the prototype parts for our new track. We are working on 3 different track surfaces for users to set up their tracks, which include RCP Tiles, HTUSA Kyosho carpet and a custom racing carpet. (The custom racing carpet is still being tested. We should have results back in a week or two.)

I designed all the parts of the track to go together very quickly. After you have rolled out the carpet, installing the worm rails, curbs and grass will install by simply finding the location you would like to place them and pressing down on to the carpet. The worm rails will bend in any direction to create any track you can imagine.

All new kits will include, but not limited to the parts below.

Carpet or RCP Tiles ~ We will include enough carpet or RCP Tiles to create a typical track 6ft x 12ft. If you already own RCP Track kits, we can include only Blank RCP tiles so you can fill in the middle of your track layout and use you’re existing out- side straights and turn tiles/rails. You can purchase additional tiles or carpet to make much larger layouts if needed.

Worm Rail ~ All kits will include enough RCP worm rail to make a large road course including short and wide turns, pit lanes and straight a ways. The worm rail is ¾” tall and is very durable. It will bend in any angle and will not snap if bent too far. The surface of the rails are very slick and will allow the cars to slide off on angle impacts. The rail material will help protect the plastic bodies as it has excellent flex characteristics that does not mar the plastic bodies. Users can install worm rails for the outside borders or install the supplied black RCP linking rails.

Curbs ~ All kits will contain a variety of racing curbs. Included will be curbs for short 180 deg, wide radius 180 deg, large radius outside grass run offs, short radius grass run offs, straight grass run offs and 45 sweeps. The curbs are tapered on the front edge to simulate real race driving as the car will bounce just a little, and an advantage is gained for staying just outside the curb and on the track surface. The curbs at the grass run offs are tapered on both the front and back side, so when a car goes into the grass, it can ride back over the curb and onto the track surface.

Grass ~ All kits will include simulated grass similar to below pictures. I am not sure at this point if the grass will be supplied in bulk for the user to cut to length for each application or if we will pre cut them in specific shapes, laminated to thin solid material for quicker installation. Looking for feedback on this. Once the grass is cut to shape, it will install very quickly with supplied Velcro strips.

Pit Lane Markers ~ Small Velcro strips will be supplied to make pit lane car markers similar to below pictures. You can cut them to length to create any type of pit lane markers you desire.

Worm rail attachment clips ~All kits will include a bag of worm rail couplings and carpet attachment clips. All couplings and attachment clips were omitted in the pictures below until we receive documentation back from the USTPO.

i don't know about the carpet but the worm rail looks great! i know some people complain about rcp tile tracks being bumpy but i they they are a lot smoother than traditional ozite carpet layed on an unlevelled surface.

will these carpet tiles be the same height as rcp tiles?

RCPMini-z

2009.05.18, 09:22 PM

i don't know about the carpet but the worm rail looks great! i know some people complain about rcp tile tracks being bumpy but i they they are a lot smoother than traditional ozite carpet layed on an unlevelled surface.

will these carpet tiles be the same height as rcp tiles?

We experimented with carpet tiles, but they did not perform well. We are not making carpet tile tracks.

We will offer the worm rail track kits with either RCP standard tiles or custom racing carpet. If you already own some RCP track kits, you can use the straight tiles/rails and the outside corner tiles/rails for the new track. We can supply theh blank RCP tiles to fill in the middle section.

I designed a custom attachment that will allow users to connect the worm rail and curbs to existing RCP interlocking tiles.

yasuji

2009.05.18, 10:05 PM

We experimented with carpet tiles, but they did not perform well. We are not making carpet tile tracks.

We will offer the worm rail track kits with either RCP standard tiles or custom racing carpet. If you already own some RCP track kits, you can use the straight tiles/rails and the outside corner tiles/rails for the new track. We can supply theh blank RCP tiles to fill in the middle section.

I designed a custom attachment that will allow users to connect the worm rail and curbs to existing RCP interlocking tiles.

I don't think we will ever go carpet for the Mini-z racing events. The RCP tile surface performs the best for most scale RC cars. We will most likely incorporate the worm rails, curbs and possibly grass run offs into future Mini-z racing events.

RCPMini-z

2009.05.19, 06:46 AM

looks great .....i cant wait to test them @ Matsushimas....;)

Yes, I need to bring some of the components of this track to your shop for testing. I will find the time in the next few weeks.

RCPMini-z

2009.05.19, 06:49 AM

If you are looking to get a track now, I would reccommend purchasing one of our 30cm or 50cm tracks from the Tinyrc shop. It will take a little time to get all the components molded up for the new dNaNo track. You can always convert to the worm rails on the RCP tiles at a later time.

soulstice

2009.05.19, 09:50 AM

Not to diminish your efforts or the strength of your already great product line but this is nothing like what I had expected after months of anticipation.

Although I like the fact that you can get nice sweeping curves, and in some cases eek out more usable race surface, the aesthetics of the system leave something to be desired. I guess this has more to do with seeing what HT and Kyosho are doing with their tracks. With the Dnano, I suppose I was just expecting something that looked as good as worked. But this is just one person's opinion and to be fair I should save my judgement until I've tried it out.

RCPMini-z

2009.05.19, 10:39 AM

Not to diminish your efforts or the strength of your already great product line but this is nothing like what I had expected after months of anticipation.

Although I like the fact that you can get nice sweeping curves, and in some cases eek out more usable race surface, the aesthetics of the system leave something to be desired. I guess this has more to do with seeing what HT and Kyosho are doing with their tracks. With the Dnano, I suppose I was just expecting something that looked as good as worked. But this is just one person's opinion and to be fair I should save my judgement until I've tried it out.

If you don't like the look, I am not sure how testing it out will change your mind about the appearance.

You have to understand that the tracks I design are being sold in the mass market and by people of all assembly skill levels. They need to be somewhat modular in fashion or easily assembled and taken apart. The tracks also need to function well in everyday applications. They can't fall apart after a week of use or break when the cars impact the rails and other parts. I am very capable and I have designed some fantastic looking and more authentic looking tracks, but they were for special event shows and take a great deal of time to install and make. To make those type of tracks available to the mass market would be very expensive to manufacture and could run anywhere from $500 ~ $1000 per set up. Target price for a track product that you plan to sell more than a couple hundred units per month needs to be below or very close to the $200 range in my opinion.

I do understand that not everyone will like all aspects of our products and I appreciate your feedback. All feedback whether good or bad will help me in providing better products in the future.

soulstice

2009.05.19, 11:55 AM

If you don't like the look, I am not sure how testing it out will change your mind about the appearance.

I dunno, my thought was that I might like it better seeing it in person.

You have to understand that the tracks I design are being sold in the mass market and by people of all assembly skill levels. They need to be somewhat modular in fashion or easily assembled and taken apart. The tracks also need to function well in everyday applications. They can't fall apart after a week of use or break when the cars impact the rails and other parts. I am very capable and I have designed some fantastic looking and more authentic looking tracks, but they were for special event shows and take a great deal of time to install and make. To make those type of tracks available to the mass market would be very expensive to manufacture and could run anywhere from $500 ~ $1000 per set up. Target price for a track product that you plan to sell more than a couple hundred units per month needs to be below or very close to the $200 range in my opinion.

I definitely understand and as I said before I don't mean to diminish the work. I guess compared to your existing track it doesn't as polished but I definitely understand the reasoning behind the solution and your constraints.

I do understand that not everyone will like all aspects of our products and I appreciate your feedback. All feedback whether good or bad will help me in providing better products in the future.

I know you've put a lot of effort into this and I will definitely keep you in the loop if I have any constructive suggestions.

Cherub1m

2009.05.19, 12:11 PM

Hi RCPMini-z

Very nice!!! I have a Mini96 with expansion kit and I am loving it. Can you show us how the worm rails are attached to the track

RCPMini-z

2009.05.19, 12:32 PM

Hi RCPMini-z

Very nice!!! I have a Mini96 with expansion kit and I am loving it. Can you show us how the worm rails are attached to the track

I would love to, but the attachment clips are the only parts that we are having the USTPO review for possible patents. We have the RCP tile attachments, the worm rail couplings and the worm rail to carpet attachments to finalize with the USTPO. Once I have some pending documents available, I can show you everything.

Cherub1m

2009.05.19, 01:23 PM

I would love to, but the attachment clips are the only parts that we are having the USTPO review for possible patents. We have the RCP tile attachments, the worm rail couplings and the worm rail to carpet attachments to finalize with the USTPO. Once I have some pending documents available, I can show you everything.

Ok thanks, I'll be waiting :D

PridgeoK

2009.05.31, 03:42 PM

Very cool ideas!

Personally, I would like the option of having the grass come in large-ish rectangular widths that users would clip to their own dimensions. As an easy extra, you could add some simple paper templates for people to use to cut out what might be commonly used types. Giving people the flexibility to make their own cutouts good.

The little curbs look awesome - I'm just hoping they are somewhat easy to drive over so if you skid out over one of them, it's possible to drive your car back on the track without needing someone to pick the car up. Not that big of a deal, of course, but from the pictures, it looks like these curbs are taller than I would have liked them to be. I would be more interested in a curb that, in scale with the vehicle, only comes up to the bottom of the rim... so just a few millimeters tall. Enough to throw your steering for a loop when speeding down the lane, but not difficult at all to drive over.

Will the grass, curbs, rails, etc. be available on their own for those that just want some of those specific extras, or for replacement pieces?

Will you be posting their public availability here on the Tracks forum or within the RCP vendor area? Either way, I'm subscribing to this thread. ;)

More pictures please!

Kevin.

RCPMini-z

2009.05.31, 04:47 PM

Very cool ideas!

Personally, I would like the option of having the grass come in large-ish rectangular widths that users would clip to their own dimensions. As an easy extra, you could add some simple paper templates for people to use to cut out what might be commonly used types. Giving people the flexibility to make their own cutouts good.

The little curbs look awesome - I'm just hoping they are somewhat easy to drive over so if you skid out over one of them, it's possible to drive your car back on the track without needing someone to pick the car up. Not that big of a deal, of course, but from the pictures, it looks like these curbs are taller than I would have liked them to be. I would be more interested in a curb that, in scale with the vehicle, only comes up to the bottom of the rim... so just a few millimeters tall. Enough to throw your steering for a loop when speeding down the lane, but not difficult at all to drive over.

Will the grass, curbs, rails, etc. be available on their own for those that just want some of those specific extras, or for replacement pieces?

Will you be posting their public availability here on the Tracks forum or within the RCP vendor area? Either way, I'm subscribing to this thread. ;)

More pictures please!

Kevin.

The curbs are thin enough that the car can drive back over them from the grass to the track. They are just tall enough to throw your steeting off just a bit if you ride over them.

I will be posting all new information and status of the track here and on our website.

We are testing and have others testing different carpet surfaces. This will be our biggest obstacle to getting the track manufactured. The carpet must suit the small dNaNo cars and be able to roll out on a flat surface after being stored in a roll. This is not turning out to be an easy task. I will keep you updated on this and other tracks we are working on.

Skv012a

2009.05.31, 05:40 PM

Any price estimates yet? Also, could you please take a picture or two with a Z on this track for a slightly better size comparison? I may be looking into buying mini sometime soon and this could very-well be a better alternative for that, or not?

I'll be mostly looking to seriously improve my driving and a tighter track sounds very good to me unless its just too tight.

RCPMini-z

2009.05.31, 06:10 PM

For the Mini-z, I would highly recommend our 50cm tracks. http://rcptracks.com/rcptrackkits50cm.html I believe it is by far the ultimate surface and design for the 1/24 scale and larger RC car. If you're looking for a tighter track to improve your racing skills, than go with the mini-96 and some expansion kits. http://rcptracks.com/rcptrackkits30cm.html This track will definitely polish up your driving skills for when you compete on the larger tracks.

Skv012a

2009.06.01, 01:50 AM

Thanks and I said that I'm looking at mini or something similar, hence why I asked how big will this dnano track be. I might get the HPI 1/32 and thus having 1 tracked thats geared perfectly for everything would be much better. Space is also an issue, so that defenetly rules out standard size track.